About

$48,889

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My name is Madeline "Mad" Rupert, and I have been writing and drawing comics for the past eight years. For six out of those eight years, I have been working on SAKANA, my first long-format comic project, which was inspired by a trip I took to the Tsukiji Fish Market in December, 2009. At this point in 2016, Sakana is over 15 chapters and 350 pages long. I would like to collect the first 8 chapters, representing the comic's first story arc, into one handsome, professionally printed volume!

Sakana is a slice of life, romantic comedy (a Sli-Li-Rom-Com, if you will) that takes place in a giant fish market in Tokyo, Japan. Our intrepid heroes must wrangle unruly seafood, navigate a hazardous dating scene, and try to get the fish smell out of their clothes in order to find love, inner peace, and a paycheck.

The first story arc chronicles the misadventures of Jiro Sakana (the sweaty guy up there) and his friends (and frenemies) as he attempts to go on the first date of his entire life, with a girl whose name he still, somehow, doesn't know.

SAKANA is and always has been inked traditionally with a brush pen. Therefore, the interior of the book will remain black and white, with a nice colored cover. Here is what the strips look like:

The book will be over 100 pages long: two strips per page for 96 pages, and then bonus material beyond that. Some of the Stretch Goals can fund more material in the back of the book, so the final page count depends on the success of this Kickstarter.

Books are only available in softcover at this time.

In addition to a DIGITAL DESKTOP WALLPAPER featuring new art by the author, and a DIGITAL PDF version of the SAKANA VOLUME 1 book, here are some of the physical rewards you can pledge towards:

Each new tier includes the rewards in the tiers below it.

If the SAKANA Vol. 1 Kickstarter reaches its 18K goal, additional funds will unlock a series of exciting Stretch Goals to make the book bigger and fancier. You could also pick up a cool new bookmark! And you could finally force Mad to release a colored comic! Each extra dollar counts!

In conclusion, I'd like to thank Hiveworks (www.thehiveworks.com) for all their help with hosting Sakana, keeping the comic updating on a regular weekly schedule, and providing me budgeting, editing, proofreading, printing and fulfillment assistance with the Kickstarter! Please visit the hub site to check out all of the other wonderful comics they also host!

Risks and challenges

All 192 comic strips are already completed, as well as the majority of the bonus rewards and book content. I will have lots of assistance from Hiveworks (www.thehiveworks.com) in the budgeting, editing, proofreading, printing and fulfillment departments. Because I am going to be moving multiple times over the year and also getting married in October, I plan to have all of the Kickstarter material formatted and finished up by July and handed over to Hiveworks and their affiliates for fulfillment, which should wrap up in November.

Commission tiers are scheduled to be fulfilled in December (at the latest) as a precaution against my busy 2016 schedule.